Montreal Canadiens: Why Marc Bergevin’s Deadline Rentals Tend to Fail

In 2017, the Canadien’s were trending to the top of the division, and gearing up for a play-off run, and Marc Bergevin seemed dead set on stopping that that year. One of his moves was to get veteran bruiser Steve Ott.

The 6th round pick Montreal gave up turned into Tim Berni, whose draft pick was traded for a 5th round pick to Columbus, and that pick was Filip Cederqvist. Neither of which have played an NHL game.

Ott, if memory serves correct, was not terrible in what would turn out to be his final games in the NHL. He scored 1 goal and no assists in the last 11 regular season games, and no points in the 6 play off games. He did have 17 penalty minutes, which included a few fights, and did well in the face-off circle, being around 50%.

Obviously, Ott did not bring scoring and speed to his tenure in Montreal, but did bring hitting (43 hits in the regular season and 25 in the play-offs) and sandpaper grit to a fast Canadiens team. Unfortunately, he did not bring a playoff series win.

Another trade made at the deadline that year was Dwight King for a 4th round pick. Interestingly, that 4th round pick was used to select Allan McShane, who is now a part of the Canadiens’ organisation, as he was traded back to Montreal for Torrey Mitchell.

King was abysmal in his tenure with Montreal. It is hard to remember a slower player in a Canadien uniform in recent memory. As a member of the Los Angeles Kings, he fit in their bruising, punishing cycle game. His 6″4′ frame and 232 pound weight was made for punishing players in the corners, and keeping the cycle going.

The problem? Montreal is not a cycle team. They are a speed and fast break team. King scored 1 goal in the regular season, and was held scoreless in the play-offs. He then promptly left the NHL, and played in the KHL and Austria.

Dwight King did bring something to the Canadiens. Experience, physicality and sandpaper grit. Something that the Canadiens did not have before. What did he not bring? A play-off series win.

King’s one goal as a Canadien came as a break-away goal, as the Tampa Bay Lightning somehow let King in all alone, and it is apparent how slow his foot speed was. It went against everything that Montreal was at the time.

Andreas Martinsen was the next in this parade of bad ideas, with Montreal giving up Sven Andrighetto to get him. Andrighetto was not having his best year in 2016-2017, scoring 2 goals and 8 points in 27 games, but did much better in Colorado, with 5 goals and 16 points in 19 games. He was a solid depth player for the Avalanche for the next two years.

Andreas Martinsen did not do as well as a Canadien. Playing in 9 regular season games, he scored no points, and only found himself in 2 of Montreal’s 6 play-off games. It was his only season in Montreal, as he moved on to Chicago the next year. Even then, Andreas Martinsen never scored more than 1 goal in an NHL season again.

"A large, tough forward with a good shot. Enjoys the physical part of the game and crashing the net – Elite Prospects on Andreas Martinsen."

Can you sense a pattern? Only this time, Bergevin didn’t give up nothing in return. Sven Andrighetto was nothing particularly special, but his game matched Montreal’s playing style of skating fast, something that none of these new editions had.